Wednesday, November 30, 2016

I got the call last night. Walleye Pete had a charter cancel due to impending weather, and invited Dan Crane and I to go hook and line commercial fishing. It was very foggy in the morning, and in fact, into the early afternoon. It was pretty eerie going across the Bay to the Target Ship and Middle Grounds in dense fog, by radar, dodging a freighter that we never saw, but heard, and felt it's wake.

Decent fishing on the Middle Grounds for a while. Everyone got at least one 30 inch fish, and Pete got this 38 inch monster that had to go back, as it was over the maximum size for commercial fish. He only cursed a little.

Later we wandered back across to the western side at the mouth of the Potomac, looking for birds and fish. We found them, at first by ear; we could hear the birds farther away than we could see them thanks to the fog. Fishing was good, but not great, but many of the fish were big. My biggest, 35 and a fraction, came after the tip of my pole broke, making the fight a bit more challenging.

Among the birds were Northern Gannets, a diving fisher, with stiff, bright white wings with black tips, and a blue bill. They often dive in waves, a so-called gannet storm. We saw many gannets, and one small storm.

The smiling woman on the daily Moroccan television show spoke to viewers as if it were any other makeup tutorial, comparing brands and hues of face foundation and demonstrating how to apply it.

Seated next to her was a woman with what appeared to be a black eye and bruises on her cheekbones. “After the beating, this part is still sensitive, so don’t press,” the host said in Arabic as she applied makeup on the woman’s face, eventually concealing the woman’s bruises.

“Make sure to use loose powder to fix the makeup so if you have to work throughout the day, the bruises don’t show,” she said.

The makeup tutorial, aired Wednesday on Moroccan state television, instructed viewers how to use concealer to “camouflage the traces of violence against women,” spurring outrage on social media that prompted an apology from the channel. The segment was broadcast two days before the U.N. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Guardian reported.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Last Friday the Army Corps of Engineers sent protesters a letter informing them that the public land on which they have been camping for months already will be closed as of December 5th. That means that after that date everyone who remains at the main protest camp will, at least in theory, be trespassing and could be arrested.

However, it seems there is much less to the action by the Army Corps than it first appeared. Sunday the Army Corps of Engineers issued a statement saying it had “no plans for forcible removal.” In other words, the protesters may be trespassing in theory once the deadline passes, but no one is going to enforce it.

The Army Corps of Engineers “is basically kicking the can down the road, and all it is doing is taking the liability from the Corps and putting it on” the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said…County and state officials have been seeking federal law enforcement help for months and were initially buoyed by the Corps’ order for protesters to move off the land. The agency’s later announcement that it would not forcibly evict any demonstrators dampened hopes that the issue would soon be resolved, Morton County Commission Chairman Cody Schulz said.“It’s useless for local and state law enforcement, and the order from the Corps is self-serving and amounts to them limiting their liability,” Schulz said.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple criticized the move, telling the AP, “Clearly the responsibility of clearing that land now lies primarily with the Corps.”

What the feds won’t do the winter weather might. There was much consternation a week ago when police sprayed water on protesters who approached their line. At the time it was only about 20 degrees outside. But that could seem balmy by next month. There is a snow storm hitting the area this week and the current forecast is for a high of 10 degrees Fahrenheit in Cannonball, ND next Thursday. The low that night is forecast as -2 degrees. That will test the resolve of the protesters far more than anything the police can do.

It's one thing if the Feds are declining to enforce the law because they fear another shooting, like at Malheur, Oregon standoff, it's entirely another if administration is refusing to enforce the law because they sympathize with the protesters. I hope the former, but suspect the latter. I'd like to see the emails.

Six years after Maryland expanded its oyster sanctuary coverage in an effort to rebuild the shellfish population, some watermen are pushing to open the St. Mary’s River and Patuxent River sanctuaries for limited harvesting. Although still under discussion, their proposal faces strong opposition from environmental groups and some legislators.

The push behind the ongoing discussion to open some sanctuaries originated from a state decision in 2010 that expanded sanctuary coverage from 9 percent to 24 percent of productive bottom.

The St. Mary’s River sanctuary, located in its upstream portion, was a result of that expansion. The sanctuary encompasses about 1,300 acres, of which 9 percent is historical oyster bottom, including 10 historical oyster bars. In Calvert County, on the Chesapeake Bay side of Calvert Shores, Herring Bay and Plum Point, there are a little over 25,000 acres of oyster sanctuaries, according to Maryland Department of Natural Resources Public Information Officer Gregg Bortz. Along the Patuxent River side, there are roughly 600 acres in Solomons Creek and 14.5 acres of sanctuaries in the Upper Patuxent River, which Calvert shares with the other Southern Maryland counties.

After a highly anticipated, five-year evaluation report came out from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources three months ago, some watermen saw an opportunity to float the idea of opening some sanctuaries to rotational harvest.

“Oysters have a history. If they are not cultivated, they die. They get smothered out from sedimentation,” said Tommy Zinn, president of the Calvert County Watermen’s Association. “They cannot reproduce if they [don’t] have a clean surface to attach their larvae on.”

Gee, how did oysters ever come to cover the bottom of vast areas of Chesapeake Bay if there were no watermen to "cultivate" (read harvest), them?

This happens every time an oyster sanctuary has any sign of success; watermen demand the right to harvest them, saying 'they'll go to waste if we don't', and all too often the politicians give in and let them take them. When they don't, watermen frequently sneak in at night, and take them anyway. At least that's become more difficult thanks to bay wide radar coverage.

Just a reminder of my oyster restoration plan. Ban fishing of wild oysters for 5, or better, 10 years, to see if oysters can show convincing sign of being able to recover in today's bay. If they show substantial recovery without aid, then go ahead with a plan to allow some harvest, while increasing the amount of bottom covered by oysters. If they can't recover on their own go ahead and explore the use of imported oyster species, while encouraging aquaculture for oysters.

With the demise of the Clinton.com line of posts, along with the demise of Hillary Clinton at the pols (to be revived only if the recount actually goes somewhere, only Obamacare Schadenfreude remains as a long standing political series. The Obamacare digital fridge isn't exactly overflowing the way it has in the past, but the election has changed the trajectory, and it's time to get some of these out before they become too stale:

“Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration blatantly ignored the voices of the American people and rammed through a hyperpartisan piece of legislation that will have a disastrous effect on our nation’s health care system,” Mr. Price said shortly after Mr. Obama signed the bill in 2010....
The legislation Mr. Price has proposed, the Empowering Patients First Act, would repeal the Affordable Care Act and offer age-adjusted tax credits for the purchase of individual and family health insurance policies. The bill would create incentives for people to contribute to health savings accounts; offer grants to states to subsidize insurance for “high-risk populations”; allow insurers licensed in one state to sell policies to residents of others; and authorize business and professional groups to provide coverage to members through “association health plans.”...

My link goes to a NYT article that warns us that Price has the vantage point of a doctor and needs "a broader perspective" that looks after the "needs of Medicare beneficiaries, Medicaid patients and taxpayers who finance those programs." We're also told that Price is "a strong conservative," "a member of the Tea Party Caucus," but "no bomb thrower": "He works within the system and has led two groups that promote conservative policies in the House."

“The Trump administration could immediately turn off the tap for making cost-sharing payments,” said Mark Regan, legal director of the Disability Law Center of Alaska in Anchorage, and a defender of the law. “Turning the payments off would come close to destroying the market.”

Insurers could be stuck with massive losses because they would still have a legal obligation to cover patients’ out-of-pocket costs, but would get no reimbursement from the government.

Another approach might involve setting a deadline.

“What Trump should do is on Day 1 say, ‘We are not going to fight that lawsuit — those payments end at the end of calendar year 2017’,” said Michael Cannon, health policy director at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank. Cannon was one of the main proponents of an earlier legal challenge to the law’s premium subsidies in certain states. That case was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the administration.

The Republican plan would take advantage of reconciliation, a budget-related mechanism to circumvent the 60-vote threshold in the Senate and prevent Democrats from being able to block legislation on their own. By striking early, the GOP could set itself up to invoke the same procedure again later in the year on a broader range of targets, including tax cuts.

The quick-strike bill, like one vetoed earlier this year by President Barack Obama, H.R. 3762, would likely set what amounts to an expiration date for the law’s financial underpinnings, leaving Congress to act at a later date on any replacement plan. That’s because more than six years after the law’s passage, Republicans still don’t have a consensus on how to replace Obamacare.

What, stop and think about what to do do? It's such a novel idea, it just might work!

Not even close: 16 million of those who gained coverage are enrolled in Medicaid, the public program for low-income residents. ObamaCare allowed states to expand the category of those eligible to sign up for Medicaid, with the federal government covering the tab.

Repeal could result in less federal funding. But no one is pushing to abolish the nation’s health-safety net. And states that just expanded Medicaid are unlikely to do a 180 and shrink it. The 16 million are likely safe.
President-elect Trump is proposing giving states more flexibility in how Medicaid is managed. That’s urgently needed. Federal Medicaid spending has shot up 40 percent in the last three years. And research shows that extra spending isn’t improving patients’ health.

What about the other nearly 5 million newly insured? They’re in ObamaCare plans, along with another 6 million who already had insurance, and all of them are having a tough time. Technically, they’re “covered,” but many can’t come up with the cash to see a doctor. They’re struggling with exorbitant deductibles — $6,000 per person for the typical bronze plan.

In short, about 5 million previously uninsured people — not the bogus 20 million — may need help after repeal. Trump is proposing market reforms to lower costs and increase choices for consumers stuck in the individual market.

Molly Frean, Jonathan Gruber and Benjamin D. Sommers provide a detailed look, not just at the amount of coverage expansion but also the sources of it. According to the authors' analysis, they can explain about 70 percent of the decline in the number of uninsured people through three factors: the subsidies for buying insurance; the law’s more generous criteria for Medicaid eligibility; and the “woodwork effect,” in which people who were previously eligible for Medicaid “came out of the woodwork” and signed up for the program in 2014.

But here’s the surprising thing: Of the change that they can explain, they find that the largest effect comes, not from the subsidies, nor from the mandate, nor even from the Medicaid expansion. The largest effect was due to that woodwork effect -- about 44 percent of the effect they can explain, or roughly 30 percent of the overall reduction in the number of uninsured in 2014. Call it 3.3 million people, out of the 11.6 million who gained insurance that year.

We’ve always known that there was some “woodwork effect,” in which people who were already eligible signed up because of some combination of easier signup procedures and the heightened publicity that surrounded Obamacare’s passage and implementation. But these are huge numbers; the woodwork effect is more than twice as large as the number of people who became eligible for Medicaid thanks to Obamacare’s more generous criteria. This suggests the possibility that the plurality of people who gained insurance thanks to the law technically didn’t need a new program to become insured; all they needed to do was to sign up for public insurance they already qualified for.
. . .
This 44 percent figure also has implications for repeal. If that many of the people who gained coverage under the law already qualified for Medicaid under the old criteria, those people will probably stay on Medicaid even if the entire law is junked. That means that repeal will not save as much money as Obamacare's detractors might hope -- but it also means that Obamacare's supporters have less to fear, because fewer people would lose coverage.

In four short years, ObamaCare has blown up the individual markets and driven insurers out of them (and providers, too). Those remaining in them in 2017 had alreadywarned before the election that they wouldn’t stick around much longer than that, either. Claiming that repeal would create a death spiral that has been forming for the past four years sounds less like ignorance and more like an attempt to create a blame-shifting narrative that lets ObamaCare advocates off the hook for their own massive — and utterly predictable — failure at running a command economy. Perhaps we’re seeing a credibility death spiral at the same time.

Pussy Riot performed not a concert but a Q&A at the Wisconsin Union last night. The Progressive covered it:

Imagine if the colorful, costumed marchers protesting in the streets of Madison against Scott Walker in 2011 were rounded up and shipped off to a penal colony. Putin’s crackdown on dissent in Russia—after an outpouring of post-Soviet free expression—was just as much of a shock. When they started to make pointed critiques of the Putin regime, Pussy Riot caught the brunt of Putin’s backlash....
For my daughters and their friends, who took part in demonstrations against Walker, hearing from these radical young women who went to prison for their beliefs was eye-opening—especially in the wake of the election of Donald Trump....
Pussy Riot members Masha Alyokhina and Basha Bogina talked about standing up against Putin’s repression, why they felt a particular kinship with Wisconsinites during the uprising against Walker, and how they continued rebelling even in prison.

Their music, when they do play, is punk rock, but that didn't stop them from participating, the next day, at the Solidarity Sing Along at the State Capitol in some anti-Scott-Walker folksinging. . .

IN THE COMMENTS: chickelit said: "Pussy Riot made a ridiculous anti-Trump propaganda video...."

I guess they're not the "trigger warning" type of feminist. That video is full of the graphic depiction of sexualized violence against women. I'm sure many people will find it sexually titillating in the old-fashioned way.

Typical over the top lefty hype. I'm so proud to have disappointed Pussy Riot.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Authorities in Florida said a robbery suspect found hiding in a pond told deputies he was "just fishing" and the real robber "went that way."

The Volusia County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded Saturday to a Family Dollar store in Deltona, where a clerk told them a man with "Loyalty" tattooed across his abdomen claimed to have a gun and demanded money.

The clerk refused the request, leading the man to flea, the sheriff's office said.

The story must have been written by a flee-bitten floron , too

Deputies in a sheriff's office helicopter spotted a man walking near a pond and wading waste-deep into the water.

That's not really that unusual for Florida. When lived the Florida Man life, back in 1983-83, I used to wade and fish in the local ponds, even at night.

A group of deputies accompanied by a K9 unit located the man in the water and ordered him to raise his hands and surrender.

Sean Torres, 29, allegedly told deputies he was "just fishing" and had dropped his pole in the water.

Deputies said they questioned Torres about the robbery and he responded: "The guy who did it went that way."

Torres was arrested, however, when deputies determined his tattoos matched those described by the store clerk. He was charged with robbery and criminal mischief.

Oysters in waters from Tilghman Island south are turning up dead, and there could be any number or a combination of several reasons why.

The mortality is spotty, said Maryland Department of Natural Resources Shellfish Division Director Chris Judy, but still something watermen should keep an eye on and inform the department when they pull up dead oysters.

DNR is conducting its fall oyster survey. Meanwhile, it has been getting reports from watermen about this oyster season being a worse harvest year than last season.

The mortality levels depend on the bar, Judy said. A lot of areas have similar mortality rates compared to last year, he said.

“We’ve been to oyster bars were the mortality is well over 30 percent, which is high,” he said. “But in the very next bar, it looks fine.”

Sounds like an infectious disease to me.

There are a few theories about the causes of the mortality.

The most obvious of which, Judy said, is it has been very dry and salinity levels are up, and have been for more than a year. High salinity levels can cause a spike in disease, and when disease increases, mortality can follow, he said.

A reasonable theory; two diseases in particular plague oysters in Chesapeake Bay, Dermo and MSX, both infections by protozoans. Both do better in high salinity conditions.

Another theory points to low dissolved oxygen in the water, which can suffocate the oysters.

Qandeel Baloch (neé Fouzia Azeem) became known as “Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian.” She “shot to fame for her provocative selfies and videos in the conservative Muslim country,” as the Guardian reported in July after the 26-year-old was murdered by her own brother, Muhammad Waseem. Her mother said that Waseem “killed my daughter after being taunted by his friends. They would infuriate him and tell him she is bringing you dishonour.” Qandeel was from a poor family, and claimed her family forced her into an unwanted marriage to “an uneducated man” at 17:

Her "provocative" selfies would seem utterly high school to American audiences. Some leg, a little boob and a lot of "kissy lips".

I said, ‘No, I don’t want to spend my life this way’. I was not made for this. It was my wish since I was a child to become something, to be able to stand on my own two feet, to do something for myself.
But then they married me off when I was 17, 18. I was not happy and never accepted him as my husband.
What do you think will happen in a forced marriage? With an uneducated man, an animal. . . .
I never accepted him as my husband in my heart or mind.
How I spent a year and a half with him, only I know. And I only did it because of the child. Otherwise I wouldn’t have spent even one month with him. . . .
The kind of torture he has inflicted on me, you can’t even imagine. Why? Because I was cute, I was young. He was older than me. He didn’t trust me. I don’t know why. I couldn’t connect with him on an intellectual level. Our ideas were very different.

Then I had a child, so I sacrificed. I spent a year and a half with him. After the child, I told him I want to study. I want to complete my education, I want to get a job, I want to stand on my own two feet. But he never agreed. . . .
My family never supported me. I would say I don’t want to live with him, but they didn’t support me.
That man tried to throw acid on me. He said ‘I’ll burn your face because you’re so beautiful’. And today the media isn’t giving me any credit for speaking about empowerment of women, girl power.

It must be all Donald Trump's fault.

In the West, female celebrities engage in provocative behavior and men are accused of “misogyny” for criticizing them, but any woman in an Islamic nation who attempts to emulate such behavior risks consequences far more serious than sexist jokes. Qandeel Baloch had 43,000 Twitter followers and more than 700,000 on Facebook, the BBC reported, and used her social-media presence to spark outrage. In June, she posted selfies posing with an Islamic cleric, Mufti Abdul Qavi, and told Pakistan Today the conservative Muslim scholar was “hopelessly in love” with her. That publicity stunt may have led to her murder three weeks later:

Waseem said he killed his sister due to her social media activities, which included a series of risque video posts with the prominent cleric, Mufti Qavi.
Qavi was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts.
Speaking to Geo News today, Qandeel’s mother accused Mufti Qavi, her daughter’s former husband Ashiq Hussain, and a man name Shahid of being involved in the murder.
She claimed her son Waseem carried out the murder on the advice of Mufti Qavi, and that the cleric “provoked” him into killing Qandeel. She claimed Waseem was also in contact with Qandeel’s former husband Ashiq Hussain.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said Friday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to close an area where people have been camping for months to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Dave Archambault said in a statement that he received a letter from the Corps, dated Friday, which says all lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed Dec. 5.
. . .
The letter, provided by the tribe, says: "To be clear, this means that no member of the general public, to include Dakota Access pipeline protesters, can be on these Corps lands."

It says anyone on land north of the river after Dec. 5 will be trespassing and may be prosecuted. It also says anyone who stays on the land does so at his or her own risk.

The letter, from Army Corps of Engineers Col. John Henderson, says the closure is necessary to protect the general public from violent confrontations between protesters and authorities and to protect demonstrators from illness, injury or death during North Dakota's harsh winter months. It also says that the area does not have necessary first responder services or facilities to protect people during the winter.

The violence and vandalism carried out by the Indian and enviro-activist demonstrators of the Dakota Access Pipeline have been a stark contrast to the the blustery, but ultimately nonviolent and property respecting protesters at the Malheur standoff, much the way the filthy Occupy Wall Street protesters contrasted with the Tea Party demonstrations, who left their protest sites cleaner than before they arrived.
They have already promised to defy the Corps. Pipeline Protesters Vow to Stay on Federal Land

Dakota Access oil pipeline protesters will not follow a government directive to leave the federal land where hundreds have camped for months, organizers said Saturday, despite state officials encouraging them to do so.

Standing Rock Sioux tribal leader Dave Archambault and other protest organizers confidently explained that they'll stay at the Oceti Sakowin camp and continue with nonviolent protests a day after Archambault received a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that said all federal lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed to public access Dec. 5 for "safety concerns."
. . .
Standing Rock tribal members believe the land in which the encampment is on is owned by the Sioux through a more than century-old treaty with the U.S. government.

"We are wardens of this land. This is our land and they can't remove us," said protester Isaac Weston, who is an Oglala Sioux member from South Dakota. "We have every right to be here to protect our land and to protect our water."

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Fidel Castro, who towered over his Caribbean island for nearly five decades, a shaggy-bearded figure in combat fatigues whose long shadow spread across Latin America and the world, is dead at age 90. His brother Raul announced the death late Friday night.
Millions cheered Fidel Castro on the day he entered Havana. Millions more fled the communist dictator’s repressive police state, leaving behind their possessions, their families, the island they loved and often their very lives. . . .
Few fired the hearts of the world’s restless youth as Castro did when he was young, and few seemed so irrelevant as Castro when he was old — the last Communist, railing on the empty, decrepit street corner that Cuba became under his rule.

Castro turned a tropical island paradise into an impoverished desolation. He sponsored subversion and terrorism worldwide, sending Cuban troops to fight to establish a Communist regime in Angola and encouraging Communist revolutions throughout Latin America. He was an immensely evil man, who devoted his life to spreading evil everywhere.

If this were a just world, 13 facts would be etched on Castro’s tombstone and highlighted in every obituary, as bullet points — a fitting metaphor for someone who used firing squads to murder thousands of his own people.

●He turned Cuba into a colony of the Soviet Union and nearly caused a nuclear holocaust.

●He sponsored terrorism wherever he could and allied himself with many of the worst dictators on earth.

●He was responsible for so many thousands of executions and disappearances in Cuba that a precise number is hard to reckon.

●He brooked no dissent and built concentration camps and prisons at an unprecedented rate, filling them to capacity, incarcerating a higher percentage of his own people than most other modern dictators, including Stalin.

●He condoned and encouraged torture and extrajudicial killings.

●He forced nearly 20 percent of his people into exile, and prompted thousands to meet their deaths at sea, unseen and uncounted, while fleeing from him in crude vessels.

●He claimed all property for himself and his henchmen, strangled food production and impoverished the vast majority of his people.

●He outlawed private enterprise and labor unions, wiped out Cuba’s large middle class and turned Cubans into slaves of the state.

●He persecuted gay people and tried to eradicate religion.

●He censored all means of expression and communication.

●He established a fraudulent school system that provided indoctrination rather than education, and created a two-tier health-care system, with inferior medical care for the majority of Cubans and superior care for himself and his oligarchy, and then claimed that all his repressive measures were absolutely necessary to ensure the survival of these two ostensibly “free” social welfare projects.

●He turned Cuba into a labyrinth of ruins and established an apartheid society in which millions of foreign visitors enjoyed rights and privileges forbidden to his people.

Naturally, leftists around the world are in tears and singing his praises.

Culpo was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, one of five children of Peter and Susan Culpo. She has two older siblings, Pete and Aurora, and two younger, Gus and Sophie. Their restaurateur father co-owns Boston businesses including Parish Café and The Lower Depths Tap Room. Raised in the Edgewood neighborhood of Cranston, Rhode Island, She is of Italian descent with some Irish ancestry from her mother's side.

Culpo attended St. Mary Academy – Bay View, and later, Boston University. In 2010, she was signed by the Boston modeling agency Maggie, Inc. She began studying cello in the second grade, and played the instrument in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, the Bay View Orchestra, and the Rhode Island All-State Orchestra. She attended the Brevard Music Center, in North Carolina, for two summers, and has performed with the Boston Accompanietta.

However, she seems to be best know for having been Nick Jonas' girlfriend, which is unfortunate, since I have absolutely no clue who Nick Jonas is. Fortunately, they've broken up, and I don't have to learn.

Friday, November 25, 2016

As I roundaboutly reported yesterday (see the sequence of video's from appropriate locations) we left early yesterday morning headed for Canonsburg, to share Thanksgiving dinner with our son Alex, his wife, Kelly, their 10 month old son Graham, and her family. Other than having the "check engine" light go on in our van after stopping for gas in Morgantown, everything went fairly smoothly. Traffic was light as usual on Thanksgiving Day. We arrived with plenty of time to check in to the motel (one that allows canine guests), and headed over to Alex's to say hi.

After walking Skye, and Alex's dog we went in to watch football, and let Georgia play with Graham. The dogs had a few dustups but were mostly peaceful together. Hendrix resents Skye near her food or people, and Skye seems to enjoy egging Hendrix on. Around 5:30 we headed over to Kelly's parents house, a mile, and 3 hills away. There we met Kelly's Mom and Dad, Jean and Bob, and her sister Bethanny, brother-in-law Eric, and 8 month old daughter Saddie.

We watched a little more football, and had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and didn't get up the next morning until. . . oh wait. Wrong story. We did have a dinner that couldn't be beat, turkey, stuffing, baked fruit, salad, and much much more, including apple and pumpkin pie (ala mode, of course). After dinner we went back to football and grandbaby watching until the food and driving coma began to set in, and we drove back to the motel, where a desk clerk was so taken with Skye she gave us a dog treat.

This morning we started a bit late. After Skye's morning constitutional, we stopped at a nearby Lowes for air filters for Alex, and met them a the local King's diner for breakfast. Graham behaved great, even though he seemed to have a bit of a cold.

After breakfast, we went to have the code read on the car at a nearby Advanced Auto. It turned out to be something minor, that can stand to wait until we get home to have worked on. That was good news. Back to Alex's where they were in a flurry of activity. Graham was fussy again and they we concerned that he might have an ear infection, and off to the local urgent care center to check they went, leaving us to guard the house and keep the dogs in order.

When they returned (yes, maybe a minor ear infection, antibiotics prescribed JIC), someone, it's not clear who, didn't watch the door carefully, and Skye bolted for it, and made her escape into the wilds of Canonsburg. All of us (except Kelly and Graham) went after her, but Alex lost sight of her in some brush behind their house. He and I walked, Georgia drove, and for a half hour she was gone, until a neighbor managed to collar her, and get her into his house. Whew!

That was our big activity for the day. After that we retired to a lunch of leftovers from the night before, a Star Wars marathon on TBS, and pizza for dinner. Graham learned that Siberian Huskies are much more tolerant of small children crawling all over them than ankle biters like Hendrix..

Back in our motel room now, and we'll be one our way back to the low country tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

It looks just awful, that poor sailboat sailing up the slick of pollutants left by the industries that line the Elizabeth River. Unfortunately for the narrative, the big slick bounded by the foam on either side of the sailboat, and extending up the river is merely that water in the wake of a large ship, and the lesser slicks on either side are just wind-slicks, a natural phenomenon that happens even in the cleanest water. No pollution necessary. This is not the say the Elizabeth River is not polluted. It is. It's just that this photo doesn't show it, and is misleading the public. Thanks to the EPA.

Anna Faris owes an animal shelter $5,000 for breaking a signed adoption agreement ... according to the shelter, which says her Chihuahua was found homeless and in bad shape.

Kinder4Rescue owner Laurel Kinder tells TMZ ... Faris signed a contract when she adopted the dog, named Pete, 4 years ago agreeing to pay the fine if she ever turned it over to a new owner. The rule was created so they could always keep track of where the animal ends up.

Yep, We've adopted two dogs now, and they are quite clear about retaining the right to take the dog back if it's necessary. I do wonder what happened here; if the dog was really abandoned or if it escaped and they were unable to find it again.

The North Hollywood shelter says it got a call Friday from a nearby vet saying someone had found Pete emaciated, wandering the street. When the vet ran his microchip, Kinder4Rescue and Faris' names came up. Faris hasn't answered the shelter's calls.

We need to start chipping kids in addition to dogs.

We spoke to sources connected to Anna and Chris Pratt and they say the couple is out of state, but they've gotten wind that Pete was found, and intend to make arrangements for the dog to be brought home. We were also told they had found a "nice family home" for Pete.

Nice gesture, after the fact. Maybe it's even legit?

As of now, Kinder is putting Anna on its do-not-adopt list. Anna will have to prove she's been actively looking for Pete to get out of the fine.

My liberal friends sometimes ask me why I don’t devote more of my science journalism to the sins of the Right. It’s fine to expose pseudoscience on the left, they say, but why aren’t you an equal-opportunity debunker? Why not write about conservatives’ threat to science?

My friends don’t like my answer: because there isn’t much to write about. Conservatives just don’t have that much impact on science. I know that sounds strange to Democrats who decry Republican creationists and call themselves the “party of science.” But I’ve done my homework. I’ve read the Left’s indictments, including Chris Mooney’s bestseller, The Republican War on Science. I finished it with the same question about this war that I had at the outset: Where are the casualties?

Where are the scientists who lost their jobs or their funding? What vital research has been corrupted or suppressed? What scientific debate has been silenced? Yes, the book reveals that Republican creationists exist, but they don’t affect the biologists or anthropologists studying evolution. Yes, George W. Bush refused federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, but that hardly put a stop to it (and not much changed after Barack Obama reversed the policy). . .

There's far too much good stuff in this article to quote, so please read the whole thing.

I wouldn't be expecting her to get any White House or Mar-a-Lago invitations for a while.

Others pointed out that people should be proud that the first lady–elect is multilingual. “@GigiHadid Melania Trump speaks 5 languages… I’m not a Trump supporter in any way but publicly humiliating her for having an accent? #NOTOK.”

Meanwhile, some were confused by the joke since both of Hadid’s parents are immigrants and have accents. Her mom, Yolanda Hadid, is from the Netherlands and her father, Mohamed Hadid, is from Israel. “Disappointed Gigi Hadid ridiculed first lady elect Melania Trump. Mean spirited and in poor taste. For record, Hadid’s mom has an accent,” one tweeter wrote.

Major backlash, my ass. A few conservative sites (like this) got mad, or made fun of her. Big deal, it won't cost her a dime and will only make her more popular in the "in" crowd.

Actually, impression sucks bad, the accent isn't even a good try, but I have to give the baby faced supermodel props for the physical impression; I didn't think she could suck her cheeks in that far.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Skye bullied us into taking a walk before lunch today. Three days of strong northwest winds had generated a "blow out" tide, a full foot lower than "normal" astrological tides. Even though we arrived before high tide, there were huge areas of bay bottom exposed.

Georgia took the leash while I tried to take some pictures.

A good look from the steps at Calvert Beach, showing the exposed sand bars.

There's still lots of fall color around. This is a maple, but we have oaks, hickories, and several other trees in various shades of yellow, orange and red.

Here's a shot down Bayview Ave. I would guess about half our leaves are down at this point, with a lot still to fall. Most of the poplars are gone, but the abundant oaks hold tight for a while longer (some until the green leave push them off the twigs in spring).

Through the yellowing Paw Paw forest behind our house, on the way home.

Former Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway told “Morning Joe” Tuesday morning that Trump will not pursue criminal investigations into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server. Trump feels Clinton has “been through enough,” she said.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski read the breaking news before it was announced that Conway was the source.

“A source with direct knowledge of Donald Trump's thinking tells ”Morning Joe“ that the president-elect will not pursue any investigations into Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server, and also for the questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation.”

Conway later told “Morning Joe”:

“I think when the President-elect, who's also the head of your party, tells you before he's even inaugurated that he doesn't wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone, and content.”

The announcement breaks Trump's campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor, including during the second presidential debate — when he also dropped the “you'd be in jail” card on Hillary.

Could this be a head fake to prevent Obama from issuing a last minute pardon?

Anyway, I agree with the general principle that you should not be using the law to go after the losing opponent in a national election. That's banana republic style politics and we've had too much of that over the past 8 years.

I'm more forgiving of Hillary's State Dept. email shenanigans than the Clinton Foundation matter. It seems to me that the email matter, while an extremely reckless choice, and while done specifically to keep her other business secret, was less evilly motivated than the Clinton Foundation influence peddling scheme, which was all about using the power of the state for personal enrichment and power. Even when it's pretty clear that you could hang technical violations of national security on her (Comey didn't say she was innocent, just that it would be almost impossible to prosecute), the magnanimous thing to do is to issue a pardon, and tell her to go forth and sin no more. Like that will ever happen.

In light of Judicial Watch announcing the receipt of 508 documents related to Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, McClatchy’s Anita Kumar writes that the public can “expect periodic releases of records to continue through 2018, even though many Clinton critics have moved on following Donald Trump’s victory.”

Clinton’s lawyers certainly haven’t moved on, and on Monday they filed their objection to Judicial Watch’s request to compel Clinton to answer three interrogatories that were among 25 submitted by Judicial Watch. “Secretary Clinton answered the interrogatories to the best of her knowledge in good faith, and her answers are consistent with the voluminous public record,” the filing reads.

Sen. Jeff Sessions is on record saying so-called “sanctuary cities” that protect illegal immigrants should be prosecuted. He himself may get that chance next year.

Mr. Sessions is president-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next attorney general, and if he’s confirmed, he will mark a 180-degree turn from the Obama administration on a host of issues, but nowhere more so than on immigration, where he’s been the Senate’s leading crackdown proponent.

From his first day in office, Mr. Sessions will have the power to strip some federal funding from sanctuary cities, thanks to rulings this year by the Justice Department’s inspector general, who said federal law requires localities to cooperate with immigration agents — and who provided an initial list of a handful of the worst offenders.

“The sanctuary cities thing is huge. I think most jurisdictions are going to fold like a cheap suit,” said Rosemary Jenks, government relations manager at NumbersUSA, which lobbies for stricter immigration laws.

Some sanctuary cities have already said they’ll resist any effort to change their behavior. They are being prodded by immigrant rights advocates who are calling on Senate Democrats to deny Mr. Sessions the chance to be attorney general, saying he represents a massive step backward for the Justice Department.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

It's one thing to selectively enforce laws for which you have insufficient resources to fully enforce, it's entirely another to junk a whole class of laws that you don't approve of. Still, realistically, I never expected any such action. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, I expect, after a lot of whining, that the "sanctuary cities" will fall in line, particularly if their funding is threatened. Nothing gets a bureaucrats attention like a threatened budget cut.

Sydney Leathers may be one of the more influential people in politics, and she’s not even a politician.

Four years ago, she was barely on the media’s radar—just a small town Indiana girl engaging in flirtatious online banter. Only the man on the other side of the conversation was a well-known, loudly outspoken, and publicly respected politician. Sexts exchanged between the two over several months were leaked to the press, and with a giant swelling of media hype, Weinergate penetrated the American public in 2013, deflating congressman Anthony Weiner’s political career and putting a damper on his mayoral bid for New York.

She's a little on the plump side, but then I remember "Rule 34"

But no one could have guessed that Sydney Leathers and Anthony Weiner would come back to haunt the 2016 presidential election. Leathers played a pivotal role in orchestrating the shocking Daily Mail story back in September revealing how Weiner had been sexting a 15-year-old girl—a development that put the ex-politician under federal investigation and reopened the FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Not really much of a role model for a 15 year old.

Despite her history with Hillary’s “second daughter” Huma Abedin, the tortured ex-wife to Weiner, Leathers is a longtime Democrat and dedicated Hillary supporter. She had a visceral reaction when she realized her seismic impact on the election. “I had a panic attack when I first found out. I was shaking for a solid 30 minutes,” says Leathers. “I felt sick, and a little guilty initially, but I had no way of knowing this was going to happen. It wasn’t malicious. I wanted to help a 15-year-old girl; it was the right thing. I’m sorry for any damage it caused the Clinton campaign. That wasn’t my intent.”

This latest—and most damning—Weiner controversy began when his underage sexting partner reached out to Leathers for advice. “She reached out to me back in May. So this was something I had been dealing with behind the scenes for a long time. It was hard on me. I just felt a lot of pressure to do the right thing for her,” says Leathers. “I guess she wanted advice, or at the very least someone to listen who could relate.”

“Everyone assumes I’m an attention whore but in reality I’m naturally very introverted,” adds Leathers, who later pursued a degree in radio/TV production as well as a career in porn. “I like production because I like being behind the scenes. That’s my comfort zone.”

Earlier this year, the documentary Weiner was released—a fresh take on an old scandal offering a more intimate look at the players involved. The film was co-directed by former Weiner chief of staff Josh Kriegman, and while the politician was humanized in the documentary, Leathers was cast as the villain, and was not afforded any screen time to share her side of the story.

Some her more frightening photos 1,2, and 3. Do not, if you have a weak stomach google "Sydney Leathers nude."

Disgusted by Trump and fearing the worst, Leathers is preparing to weather the new presidency with as much body autonomy as possible—by stocking up on birth control pills. “I’m also keeping some Plan B handy in case they make that harder to get. God only knows what could happen with [Mike] Pence as VP. As a woman living in the state he poorly governed, I’m all too familiar with his views on reproductive rights,” says Leathers. “Women are really in for a fight over the next four years.”

I thank you for you inadvertent assistance, however minor, in sinking the Clinton machine and luck in your chosen field of endeavor.

Now local scientists who study the changing climate and its long-term impacts on the Chesapeake Bay region say they're worried about what a Donald Trump administration might bode for the area — and the Earth — as well.

Leave aside, for the moment the facts that sea level is rising no faster now than it has over the last 100 years, hurricanes, if anything, hurricanes have become less numerous and less damaging in recent years, and shorelines have been shifting for ever. And it's all Donald Trump's fault.

The election has some students going for their "safe space"; the dean.

At VIMS, the associate dean for academic studies met with graduate students a few days after the election to talk through their concerns. "They focused on the future," said Wells. "Their pathways to becoming scientists that would be engaged and able to find employment."

At the William and Mary Law School, students in the climate change law and policy class had similar concerns.

Carolyn Iwicki has been positioning herself for a career in fisheries science at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But Trump says he is planning on a federal hiring freeze. Fredericks said Trump's intention to downsize the bloated federal workforce through attrition is a smart move for the economy.

"So those that were angling for a career in the federal government, there's going to be likely fewer jobs available," Fredericks said. "And they may have to take a look at their education and rechanneling that" to the private sector.

Iwicki said that on election night she was ready to rechannel to a job posting she found in New Zealand. "But I decided I'm going to stay, no matter how bad it gets," Iwicki said.

Fellow student Rebecca Ribley concurred. "Government opportunities seem to not have a clear future," said Ribley. "I still want to do environmental law. But my job just got way harder but way more important."

My scientific career spanned multiple presidents from both parties, starting with Reagan. I never observed any effect of a change in the administration, although, overall, as time went on, I believe bullshit crowded science through out the era, as more people got their fingers into the administrative pie.

It looks like the first big fight between the defeated Democrats and the victorious Donald Trump is shaping up too be the confirmation of Sen Jeff Sessions of Alabama as Attorney General. Although the ostensible reason is a few comments Sessions has made in the distant past that will be construed as racist, despite his having prosecuted the KKK in Alabama. On the Sunday shows yesterday, Sen Schumer all but promised to bring all his available weapons to the fight. Byron York explores the real reason: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is Democrats' nightmare:

Here's why the effort to stop Sessions is likely to intensify as his confirmation hearings near. Sessions is the Senate's highest-profile, most determined, and most knowledgeable opponent of comprehensive immigration reform. Democrats are particularly anxious about immigration because of the unusually tenuous nature of President Obama's policies on the issue. Those policies can be undone unilaterally, by the new president in some cases, and by the attorney general and head of homeland security in other cases. There's no need for congressional action — and no way for House or Senate Democrats to slow or stop it.

There are extensive, and in some cases, strict immigration laws on the books, passed by bipartisan majorities of Congress. Obama wanted Congress to change those laws. Congress declined. So Obama stopped enforcing provisions of the law that he did not like. A new administration could simply resume enforcement of the law — a move that by itself would bring a huge change to immigration practices in the United States. No congressional approval needed.

Any nominee of Trump's could take on that role, but Sessions is the one with the best established record.